Page 60 of His Christmas Gift

AUTUMN

Iran out of tears to cry.

I forgot when I stopped crying. Maybe it was ten minutes ago or an hour ago. I didn’t remember. I couldn’t tell how long I had been in my room for, and I honestly didn’t care to find out. What did it matter?

It felt like I had lost everything. Dean was gone, and I didn’t expect him to show back up. This baby would disrupt his entire life, his entire career. Even having a relationship with me would throw his life off its usual groove that he was so attached to. I was foolish to think that we would’ve ever worked together.

We were two different people from two different worlds. Maybe we were from the same place, but we had changed a lot since we were kids. He was a successful business owner, who was now my business partner. I didn’t even know if that could work anymore. It would be too… weird.

Basically, my entire future was up in the air, and I was waiting on it to come crashing back down. No matter how bad the aftermath was in the end, I still had to pull myself together. I had to step up for our baby, even if Dean wasn’t around.

As I lay on my old bed, I placed my hand on my stomach, even if it hadn’t grown any yet. I breathed in deeply through my nose as my eyes fell shut. I couldn’t help but wonder what our baby would look like or act like. Would they have my red hair? His nose? My sense of adventure? His determination and drive?

Whomever they turned out to be, I would be proud of them. I would be by their side. I wouldn’t ever treat them like they didn’t matter and like they weren’t good enough. Maybe I wouldn’t be the perfect mother, but I wanted my child to be the happiest, most supported kid out there. I would make sure of that.

A knock suddenly sounded on my door making my eyes slide open. I stared at the ceiling for a moment, listening to footsteps outside of my door. I wasn’t in the mood to talk, but I knew that I couldn’t hide in my room forever. Eventually, I would have to face reality and move on with my life. I just wished I knew what direction that was in.

“Autumn, open the door,” my mother’s voice sounded from outside.

I sighed, reaching up to wipe away any leftover tears from my eyes. I knew they were still red and puffy, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t care what she thought at this point. My huge secret had been outed right in front of her, along with the revelation that she was a grandmother. I could only imagine how many thoughts she had about that.

Knowing that she wouldn’t go away, I rolled off my bed and walked over to my bedroom door. I unlocked it, not bothering to open it as I walked back to the bed. I sat cross-legged on the mattress, pressing my back against the wall that the bed was pushed against.

My mother slowly pushed open the door before stepping inside, her eyes sweeping over the room before resting on me. She let out a sigh before moving to stand in front of me, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I think you have some explaining to do,” she told me.

I didn’t even have the energy to scoff or roll my eyes at her words. Of course, she didn’t come in here to comfort me. She came here to make me talk, to pry as much information out of me as possible. I was surprised that Dean hadn’t spilled everything to her after I stormed away.

“You’re just going to be disappointed. We don’t have to do this,” I muttered, lowering my eyes. We could just be done. I could grab my things from the hotel and catch the earliest flight home, and we wouldn’t ever have to speak about this again. That wasn’t how my family worked, though.

“No, I need to know what in the world is going on. You brought Dean here claiming that he’s your fiancé, but then you said that you weren’t even together. Yet, you’re pregnant,” my mother replied, sounding as confused as she looked.

I supposed that was fairly confusing from the outside. Things would’ve been so simple if they actually worked out, but I did this to myself by lying in the first place and then getting too involved with my fake fiancé. This was a disaster from the start.

“Dean was my boss. He bought Aunt Lisa’s gym,” I told her, watching my mother’s eyebrows lift slightly. “We recognized each other because we went to school together.”

“Were you friends?” my mother questioned me.

“The opposite,” I said.

“It certainly didn’t seem like it from how you’ve been acting together,” my mother huffed lightly as she shook her head.

“I didn’t want to come here alone because I knew you and Dad would give me grief about being single. Again. I was sick of it, so I asked him to act like my fake fiancé,” I told her, making her scoff fizzle away immediately.

“You faked a whole engagement just because you didn’t want me and your father to say anything about your dating life? What do we even say that makes you so upset?” my mother replied, already sounding offended.

“You act like I can’t be successful or happy without a husband to attend to me,” I said, drawing my knees up against my chest. I never felt like enough in their eyes.

“We never said that, Autumn,” my mother argued.

“It was implied! You lectured me more on being single than praising me for my own accomplishments,” I snapped.

My mother’s eyes widened as we stared at each other.

“We just want you happy and taken care of. We were able to do that for you when you were living under our roof. Then, you took off into the world,” she replied.

“I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing that for a while now,” I pointed out. I hadn’t asked for their help once since I moved out. I didn’t plan on doing so either.

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